Reiwa

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Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga announcing the name of the new Imperial era at a press conference

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Japanese office workers watching the announcement on a live televised broadcast

Reiwa (Japanese: 令和, Hepburn: Reiwa) is the era of Japan that began on 1 May 2019, the day on which Emperor Akihito's elder son, Naruhito, ascended the throne as the 126th Emperor of Japan. Emperor Akihito abdicated the Chrysanthemum Throne on 30 April 2019, marking the end of the Heisei era. The year 2019 corresponds to Heisei 31 until 30 April, and Reiwa 1 (令和元年, Reiwa gannen, 'the first year of Reiwa') from 1 May 2019.

Background

Name selection

A shortlist of names was drawn up by a nine-member expert panel comprising seven men and two women, and the cabinet selected the final name from the shortlist. The nine experts were:

• Midori Miyazaki (宮崎緑) – Professor at Chiba University of Commerce
• Itsurō Terada (寺田逸郎) – Former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Japan
• Shinya Yamanaka (山中伸弥) – Nobel prize-winning stem-cell scientist; professor at Kyoto University
• Mariko Hayashi (林真理子) – Screenwriter and novelist
• Sadayuki Sakakibara (榊原定征) – Former chairman of the Japan Business Federation
• Kaoru Kamata (鎌田薫) – Trustee and President of Waseda University
• Kōjirō Shiraishi (白石興二郎) – President of the Japan Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association
• Ryōichi Ueda (上田良一) – President of the Japan Broadcasting Corporation
• Yoshio Ōkubo (大久保好男) – President of Nippon Television Holdings

The day after the announcement, the government revealed that the other candidate names under consideration had been Eikō (英弘), Kyūka (久化), Kōshi or Kōji (広至), Banna or Banwa (万和), and Banpo or Banhō (万保), three of which were sourced from two Japanese works, the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki. Official pronunciations of these names were not released, although the reading of Eikō was leaked; the other readings are speculative. Top guess names among include An'ei and Heiwa (平和）.

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A crowd watching the televised announcement on a giant screen next to Shinjuku Station

Announcement

The Japanese government announced the name during a live televised press conference, as Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga traditionally revealed the kanji calligraphy on a board. Prime Minister Shinzō Abe said that Reiwa represents "a culture being born and nurtured by people coming together beautifully".

Origin and meaning

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Plum blossoms in Minabe, Wakayama

The kanji characters for Reiwa are derived from the Man'yōshū, an eighth-century (Nara period) anthology of waka poetry. The kotobagaki (headnote) attached to a group of 32 poems (815–846) in Volume 5 of the collection, composed on the occasion of a poetic gathering to view the plum blossoms, reads as follows:

Original Kanbun text: 于時、初春令月、氣淑風和、梅披鏡前之粉、蘭薫珮後之香。

Classical Japanese translation (kanbun kundoku): 時(toki)に(ni)、初(sho)春(shun)の(no)令(rei)月(getsu)に(ni)し(shi)て(te)、気(ki)淑(yo)く(ku)風(kaze)和(yawara)ぎ(gi)、梅(ume)は(wa)鏡(kyō)前(zen)の(no)粉(ko)を(o)披(hira)き(ki)、蘭(ran)は(wa)珮(hai)後(go)の(no)香(kō)を(o)薫(kaora)す(su)。

English translation:

It was in new spring, in a fair ("Rei") month,
When the air was clear and the wind a gentle ("wa") breeze.
Plum flowers blossomed a beauty's charming white

And the fragrance of the orchids was their sweet perfume.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry provided an English-language interpretation of Reiwa as "beautiful harmony", to dispel reports that "Rei" (令) translated as "command" or "order". - although the "Rei" (令) character's most common meaning is indeed "order" or "command" in today's Japanese, as in "meirei" (命令).

Novelty

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Extract of Volume 5 of the Man'yōshū from which the kanji characters for "Reiwa" are derived

In addition, "Reiwa" marks the first Japanese era name with characters that were taken from Japanese classical literature instead of classic Chinese literature. The Chinese foreign ministry responded to a question related to this matter from Japanese media saying that it is Japan's internal affair to choose an era name and expressed good wishes concerning the Sino-Japanese relationship.

According to Masaaki Tatsumi (辰巳正明) and Masaharu Mizukami (水上雅晴), interviewed by the Asahi Shimbun (Asahi Newspaper) shortly after the announcement was made, the phrase has an earlier source in ancient Chinese literature dating back to the 2nd century AD, on which the Man'yōshū usage is allegedly based:

於(yù)是(shì)仲(zhòng)春(chūn)令(lìng)月(yuè)，時(shí)和(hé)氣(qì)清(qīng)；原(yuán)隰(xí)鬱(yù)茂(mào)，百(bǎi)草(cǎo)茲(zī)榮(róng)。

— Zhang Heng, Return to the Field

Then comes young spring, in a fine month,
When the wind is mild and the air clear.
Plains and swamps are overgrown with verdure
And the hundred grasses become rank and thick.

— translation by Liu Wu-chi, An Introduction to Chinese Literature (1990)

Robert Campbell, director-general of National Institute of Japanese Literature in Tokyo, provided an official televised interpretation to NHK, regarding the characters based on the poem, noting that "Rei" is an auspicious wave of energy of the plum blossoms carried by the wind, and "Wa", the general character of peace and tranquility.

Accordingly, the name marks the 248th era name designated in Japanese history. While the "wa" character 和 has been used in 19 previous era names, the "rei" character 令 has never appeared before.

Implementation

Currency

According to the Japan Mint, which is responsible for producing Japanese currency, all coins with the new era name will be released by October 2019. It takes three months to make preparations such as creating molds in order to input text or pictures. The Mint will prioritize creating 100- and 500-yen coins due to their high mintage and circulation, with an anticipated release by the end of July 2019.

Technology

Anticipating the coming of the new era, in September 2018, the Unicode Consortium reserved a code point (U+32FF ㋿ SQUARE ERA NAME REIWA) for a new glyph which will combine half-width versions of Reiwa's kanji, 令 and 和, into a single character; similar code points exist for earlier era names, including Shōwa (U+337C ㍼ SQUARE ERA NAME SYOUWA) and Heisei (U+337B ㍻ SQUARE ERA NAME HEISEI) periods. The resulting new version of Unicode, 12.1.0, is scheduled to be released on 7 May 2019.

External links

• The dictionary definition of 令和 at Wiktionary

Preceded by Heisei

Era of Japan Reiwa 1 May 2019 – present

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